EVILS OF REBELLION 157 their rights, not from the great Charter, which the poet ignores, but from common law and immemorial custom. The Barons are the King's Peers; his judges when he breaks the laws of Church or State, and the executors of their judgments, as far as they have the power. Thus they are represented in 'King John" as resisting the encroachments of the crown, and their rebellion, in alliance with the French king, is dictated by motives of religion, duty, and patriotism. But the poet is careful to point out in the speech of Salisbury the evils entailed by even justifiable rebellion. The uncertainty of conscience as to what is lawful or not in rebellion, the “healing one wound only by making many," the necessity of fighting with one's own countrymen and forming alliances with their enemies, these are some of the evils of insurrection. "But such is the infection of the time, That, for the health and physic of our right, Of stern injustice and confusèd wrong." -King John, v. 2. Hence Salisbury readily profits by the opportunity afforded by the French king's intended treachery to rejoin John. (We will) "like a bated and retired flood, Even to our ocean, to our great King John." -Ibid., v. 4. The "ocean," though a strong expression, is the natural term of the metaphor of an overflowing river, and John was now reconciled to the Church, and had given the pledges demanded. Again, the poet represents the suspicion which always attaches to the rebel, or even to those who were regarded as disaffected, however just their cause of complaint may have been. This is why the Dauphin in "King John" had determined to murder all his English allies. "Paying the fine of rated treachery Even with the treacherous fine of all your lives." -Ibid., v. 3. For the same reason the deposed Richard warns "Shall think that thou, which know'st the way To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne. Worcester speaks in the same strain :— "Bear ourselves as even as we can, The king will always think him in our debt; And afterwards : -1 Henry IV., i. 3. "Look how we can, or sad, or merrily, -Ibid., v. 2. WARNINGS REPEATED 159 This makes Mowbray and the Archbishop of York say: : "Were our royal faiths martyrs in love, We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind, -2 Henry IV., iv. I. Henry IV. warns his son to the same effect- My gain of it (the crown) by their assistances; Their merits were too great to be rewarded as they deserved. Unrewarded, they would be as faithless to their new master as to their old. Nothing was left than that they should experience the truth of Commines' saying, "Il perd souvent d'avoir trop servi." The circumstances of Shakespeare's time explain why these warnings should be so often repeated. The English Catholics in exile found that foreign countries offered them no secure asylum against the suspicion which had dogged them at home. According to Camden, the Earl of Westmoreland and the other English resident in the Netherlands were compelled, in 1575, by the Governor Requesens, at the request of Wilson, the British ambassador, to quit the country. Three years later, on March 22, 1578, the seminary of Douay was dissolved, all English capable of bearing arms being forced, by order of the magistrate, to leave the town within two days. The Rector of the University and the Governor alike spoke in favour of the College, alleging the insignificant number of the residents and their peaceful behaviour; but all to no purpose. Elizabeth, through her agents, had inspired the townspeople with the conviction that the English exiles, lay or clerical, were really agents or spies in the French interest, and must be expelled. Such then was the position of English Catholics in exile. When at home they had been represented as traitors corresponding with Spain; abroad, in Spanish territory, they were suspected as agents of the "French." 1 The In England their position was indeed desperate. However loyal they might declare themselves to be, or have proved themselves, as in the case of the Armada, their lives were in constant jeopardy, their property was being ever impoverished by monthly fines, and their homes and family life were rendered almost insupportable, owing to the domiciliary visits to which they were frequently subjected. arrival of a stranger, the groundless information of an enemy, a discharged servant, a discontented tenant, the hope of plunder or of reward, the forfeiture of the estate following the apprehension of a priest, were sufficient to procure the intrusion of the pursuivants."2 Under these intolerable sufferings, where could they look for relief? Constitutional redress was hopeless, the law was their chief torturer. Their only hope seemed to lie in active resistance, 1 "Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers," third series, p. 108. 2 Lingard, viii. 360. 1823. FOREIGN INTRIGUES 161 strengthened by foreign support. The example of "intriguing in foreign politics," as it was called, was set them by the Government. To support her own throne, Elizabeth helped the French rebels after the death of Henri II.; she assisted the Netherlanders against Philip; she interfered in Scotland from the very beginning of her reign, imprisoned the Queen, Mary Stuart, and finally beheaded her. She set up James VI. against his mother, Francis of Valois in Brabant against Philip, Antonio in Portugal also against Philip, and from the first recognised and supported Henry of Navarre as heir and King of France.1 It need cause no surprise, then, that Catholic nobles should be disposed to join in alliance with foreign princes to further their cause by procuring a successor to the throne favourable to, or at least tolerant of their own religion. Elizabeth herself had received the addresses of Philip II. of Spain, the Duke of Anjou, and Don John of Austria. There was no reason therefore to suppose that the fact of a prince being a foreigner and a Catholic would be an insuperable objection to his acceptance by the country at large. In fact the English-Spanish party hoped that the Infanta might marry Essex, the most popular Protestant leader of the time. The following lists of the parties to which the nobility belonged in Shakespeare's time is given by Simpson, from documents now preserved in the State Paper office, which had 1 Philopater, 141-143. L |